RUNNING HEAD: MAGNETIC ANIMAL REPELLENT 1

Magnetic Animal Repellent Proposal

Sidney Boakye, Michelle Miller, and Joaquin Valda

Senior Physics Mentorship

12/07/17

Dr. Psaker Lab

Governor’s School @ Innovation Park

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Acknowledgements

We would like to first off thank George Mason University, for allowing the Governor’s School

to generously fund student-led projects and presenting more STEM research opportunities to

high school students, as well as the Governor’s School @ Innovation Park for allowing us to

further and independently explore in the realm of STEM. We would also like to acknowledge Dr.

Ales Psaker, for representing us as our adult supervisor for our project and also sharing insight

into the workings systems in our project, and our peers, for inspiring us everyday and pushing us

to be our best. For keeping us on the path of success.

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Abstract

For the 2017-2018 scholastic year our group has decided on designing and developing a

device that will generate a magnetic field to keep animals like birds and deer away from man

made structures. This would be done with an apparatus that utilizes a microwave oven

transformer to create a powerful magnetic field which would cause a noticeable change and

dissuade an animal from nearing it.

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Introduction/Background

The team working on this project was formed with one goal in mind, productivity. After a

year where each current member was part of a team that produced a bad end product the

members of this group dedicated themselves to working on a mentorship project they could all

be proud off. Initially, the future of the team seemed bleak. After doing three article summaries

the team did not feel much closer to a singular project idea than when they formed a group.

There was a consensus on an engineering project but the specifics on the topic were sparse at

best. After trying multiple methods of specification a project idea was finally reached, and the

Magnetic Animal Repellent Team (M.A.R.T.) was officially formed! Headed by Michelle Miller,

the goal of this project is the successful construction of a device which can deter many different

kinds of animals from heading in direction which would be problematic. Through research we

were able to find a similar idea but that version was specifically birds and placement on

powerlines. Our version is meant for usage in different environment and would be made out of

cheaper, recyclable materials.

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Questions

Some questions that we have are, how can we make a big enough magnetic field that has

a magnitude of 25mT or greater? Would the stronger magnetic field actually repel animals, or

would it attract them? Can our method fully optimize our magnetic field based on the materials

we have selected?
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Hypothesis

By developing and constructing a device that generates a magnetic field we will be able

to manipulate the behavior of animals and steer then away from a location which will bring them

into harm.
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Materials/Methods

For our first tests in developing the electromagnet we used small and thin soft iron rods

with twentyfour awg wire and two Duracell AA batteries. The wire was wrapped around one of

the iron rods two times so it has 230 turns in total. The rod is 20 centimeters long and has a

diameter of 0.5 centimeters. We attached the batteries together and taped the wire on the positive

side of the first battery and on the negative side of the second battery. We used the magnetic

field detector with the labquest to measure the magnetic field of our electromagnets.

It was not strong enough so in order to increase the strength of the magnetic field we

needed thicker wire and a thicker iron rod. So we got fourteen awg wire, a steel spike, and used a

six volt Duracell lantern battery so that the wire nor the battery heat up to a dangerous level. The

steel spike is 13.5 centimeters in length and has a diameter of 0.9 centimeters. We did not have

enough wire so it was wrapped about three fourths around the spike two times so that it has 140

turns. This electromagnet was strong enough to to pick up a paperclip, but it does not have a

strong magnetic field. We do not know if this latest version of a electromagnet will affect the

behavior of birds.

Our future idea is to utilize a microwave transformer and use the internal coils from its

components to make an new electromagnet. We will possibly put it in an oscillation circuit so

that the magnetic field produced is moving rather than stay still.
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Results and Analysis

We used the magnetic field detector to see how strong our electromagnets are and

measured at three distances from them. For the first electromagnet with the soft iron rod the

detector read 1.04 mT right next to the rod, 0.244 mT at a distance of five centimeters, and 0.014

mT at a distance of ten centimeters. These numbers are too small to affect a small paper clip so

we measured the electromagnet with the steel spike next. The detector read 0.487 mT right next

to it, 0.176 mT at two centimetres, and 0.072 mT at five centimeters away. It was expected that

this electromagnet was going to be weaker because we were not able to wrap the spike all the

way with the wire. We decided to use the lantern battery on our first electromagnet and we were

able to get a magnetic field of 2.48 mT on the rod, 0.864 mT at two centimeters, and 0.161 mT at

five centimeters. This was the strongest we got and it was able to pick up the small paper clip,

the only problem is that the wire and the iron rod got really hot fast. We hope to get an even

stronger magnetic field when we properly wrap the steel spike.

Trial Number Length Diameter Current Magnetic Magnetic Magnetic

Number of Turns of Rod of (A) Field (0 Field (2 Field (5
(cm) Rod(cm) cm) (mT) cm) (mT) cm) (mT)

1 230 20 0.5 1.14 1.04 0.244 0.014

2 140 13.5 0.9 0.27 0.487 0.176 0. 072

3 230 20 0.5 4.18 2.48 0.864 0.161

Table 1.This is the table summarizing the data collected for the project .
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References

Staff, L. S. (2012, November 15). How Do Birds Navigate? Retrieved October 12, 2017, from

https://www.livescience.com/32276-how-do-birds-navigate.html

A. M. (2008, August 25). Cattle, Deer Graze Along Earth's Magnetic Field. Retrieved October

16, 2017, from

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080825-magnetic-cows_2.html

Staff, L. S. (2012, November 15). How Do Birds Navigate? Retrieved October 12, 2017, from

https://www.livescience.com/32276-how-do-birds-navigate.htm